Based on digital signatures, payments are made to bitcoin "addresses" or "public keys": human-readable strings of numbers and letters around 33 characters in length, always beginning with the digit 1 or 3, as in the example of 175tWpb8K1S7NmH4Zx6rewF9WQrcZv245W.

Users obtain new bitcoin addresses as necessary; these are stored in a wallet file with links to cryptographic passwords or "private keys" that enable access to and transfer of bitcoins. A file or "wallet" containing bitcoin addresses is usually encrypted with an additional passwo

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HighHardOne wrote:

I don't know why I think this, and I sure don't want to find out personally, but I imagine sex with Schmick as being how John Hobbes described life outside society as "poor, nasty, brutish and short."

And it's still unanswered, and how does one redeem crypto-currency for legal tender?

I get that cyber cash can be a solution to combat identity theft but if foreign banks seem to be the majority of institutions that deal in it what assurances does one have that such transactions are bonafide?